


Bradbury the Lead

by FunnyWings



Series: Psych/Supernatural Crossover Series [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Cop!Castiel, F/F, F/M, Gen, Humor, M/M, based off of psych, cop!Charlie, fake psychic!Dean, psych au, uses plot points from psych's No Trout About It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 06:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11075910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunnyWings/pseuds/FunnyWings
Summary: Dean Winchester's father spent his childhood trying to teach him skills so he could be a successful cop. However, after his parents divorce, Dean had a falling out with his father and dropped out of high school and has been wandering between jobs ever since. Sometimes he calls in tips to the police station for extra cash. After a while the police get suspicious and in order to prevent his own arrest, Dean tells them that he is a psychic.The infamous Dorothy Baum arrives at the SBPD in order to turn in anyone loyal to Crowley. Unfortunately, her intentions aren't as noble as they appear. A disastrous case has disastrous consequences when Michael Milton arrives at the SBPD in order to investigate.Part of the Psych/Supernatural Crossover Series. I'd suggest reading the rest first, but if you want to start with this one, no one is stopping you.Based off of Psych Episode: No Trout About It





	Bradbury the Lead

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I wrote for this series, but I finally got a good story idea for what I wanted to happen and here we go. Hope you enjoy!

Dean frowned up at his mom as she packed her suitcase and ended up lying on top of half of the clothes she wanted to pack. It would have been irritating if it wasn’t kind of cute. Mary picked the six year old up and swung him around a few times before setting him down in a chair, kissing him on the top of his head before going back to packing.

“Why do you have to go?” Dean asked loudly, and Mary didn’t have to look around to know that he was pouting. And like hell if it didn’t tug at her heart strings. Him and Sam were one of the reasons she’d slowly been decreasing how much time she spent actually going on missions and increased the amount of time she spent preparing information for other people to go on missions.

“I have a work thing I need to go to,” said Mary. She finished packing and closed her suitcase, then turned around and crouched down so she and Dean would be at the same height. “I’ll be back so soon, you’ll forget to miss me.”

“I never forget to miss you,” Dean said grumpily, little arms crossed in a way that Mary found amusingly endearing. “You’re always gone for forever.”

“It feels like that to me too,” Mary said, smiling a little sadly. “But I’ll tell you what? While I’m gone I’m going to pick up something for you and Sam. So you have something to look forward to. How does that sound?”

“Good,” Dean muttered, though he didn’t feel entirely enthused.

“And I won’t have any business trips for a long time after this one,” she said next. Dean looked up hopefully.

“Promise?”

“Promise,” Mary said, trying to ignore the tinge of regret she felt at that word. “I love you so much. Never forget that.”

Dean smiled, teeth showing and everything, and Mary felt herself grinning back.

“Dad says we’re gonna do more exercises later,” Dean confided in her next. “So I can grow up and be a cop just like him.”

“Please don’t be in a hurry to grow up,” said Mary, shuddering at the thought. “I want to keep my little boy just for a few more years.”

“Okay,” said Dean earnestly. “Can we have ice cream for dinner tonight?”

“Ask your dad,” said Mary. Dean frowned and Mary suppressed a slight grin. “I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“Yes,” Dean said, fist pumping before running off, likely to share the news with Sam. 

*******PRESENT DAY********

For Charlie, the Friday night out served a double purpose. The first was celebrating the fact that her partner in fighting crime, Castiel Novak had finally been given clearance to be on active duty again. The second was to celebrate the fact that she now could spend the night not having to deal with her obnoxious room mate.

Things had always been bad between the two of them, but at this point, Charlie was just done. There had been a very nice girl named Gilda that Charlie had brought home with her a week ago, and Charlie had liked her so much she’d thought about asking her out on a real date and giving relationships a go again.

And then Melanie had to open her stupid mouth and ask Gilda why she hadn’t left before breakfast like all of the other girls Charlie slept with. Not that Gilda had said that was why she’d awkwardly left without giving Charlie her number. Still, Charlie had been able to tell that Gilda liked her back, and the missed opportunity stung considering the romantic dry spell she had been in since her failed attempt with Jenna.

“Why so glum, Red?” said Dean, plopping himself down next to her. Castiel sat on the other side of Dean, but he looked at Charlie in concern as well. Charlie smiled to reassure them both she was fine.

“Sometimes I think I might be a little… too lucky with the ladies,” Charlie admitted with a sigh. “They come, they go. I could use a little…”

She trailed off when she noticed that Dean had sort of absentmindedly taken Castiel’s hand while she’d been talking. Great. Rub it in her face that they were so happy together like the grossly in love people they were.

“Consistency,” Charlie settled on at last. “I want to go on real dates again. With women that want me for more than just my awesome body.”

Dean frowned at this thoughtfully.

“Have you tried Christian Mingle?”

“Eat shit, Winchester,” Charlie said, not able to help bursting out into laughter. “I’m also thinking about moving out of my apartment. Melanie was always a pain in my ass, but lately she’s been awful.”

“That sounds like a good move,” Castiel said with an approving nod. “If you want to move out immediately but want more time to look for a place, you can always stay with Jo and me. I’m, uh- I’m not home a lot of nights recently, and I’m sure Jo would appreciate the company.”

Charlie had been hoping that Cas would make that offer. Not that he’d say no if she asked, but he had issues saying no to her for anything and she really hadn’t wanted to impose on him or Jo.

“That would be awesome,” she said gratefully. “Thank you Obi Wan. You were my only hope.”

“Star Wars,” Castiel said before Dean could open his mouth. “I know that one.”

Dean rolled his eyes.

“It doesn’t count if you only know things because you’ve heard them quoted by other people. You actually have to watch the thing.”

“Well last time we tried that, you got distracting,” Castiel muttered to him. Dean let a slow smile spread across his face, and then looked back at the miserable looking Charlie. “What?”

“I wish you two were still pretending to hate each other. That was much more fun to watch,” she said. “And Cas, weren’t you supposed to be avoiding strenuous activity?”

“He wasn’t straining himself,” said Dean, which gross and also ew. Charlie made her opinion known by pretending to gag. Dean snorted in response. “Whatever, prude.”

Sam walked in the door right around then and Charlie breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. Sam is here.”

Sam sat on the other side of Charlie. They caught up for a few seconds before Benny made his way over to all of them.

“What are you all going to be drinking tonight?” he asked. “I don’t gotta ask if you’ll be making my poor regulars wish I’d never bought a karaoke machine later.”

“You know us so well, Benny,” Dean said with a grin. “Beers all around, first round’s on me. Except for my guy here. He’ll take a Shirley Temple.”

“I’ll just have a coke, thank you,” Castiel said, elbowing Dean in the side. Dean elbowed him back and Benny rolled his eyes at the two of them before walking off. Charlie could relate. They were actually sickening.

“How long does it take for the honeymoon phase to wear off for your brother?” Charlie muttered to Sam under his breath.

“Inconclusive,” Sam whispered back. “Dean doesn’t usually do the honeymoon phase. Or any phase.”

Charlie looked around to see Dean in the middle of a longwinded and dirty joke about a motorcycle, a chicken, and Metallica. Castiel was holding back a smile as Dean finished. Charlie supposed that, at least, was nice to see. Castiel hadn’t been particularly happy while he’d been out of commission the past three weeks. She knew that Dean was a big part of why he hadn’t gone stir crazy in the meantime, and she really couldn’t fault the psychic for that.

So what if her own love life was in shambles? It was karaoke night and that meant it was time to cut loose and have a little fun.

They were quite a few drinks in when Dean’s name finally got called for karaoke. Sam and Charlie cheered for him as he got up on the stage. Cas surprised Charlie by putting his fingers in his mouth and letting out a loud wolf whistle.

“Where’d you learn to do that, Novak?” she asked, impressed.

“Meg,” he answered, nonchalantly.

Right. Charlie looked back up at Dean to see him pointing at Cas before his music started up. Charlie groaned along with the rest of the bar when she heard the opening notes to You Shook Me by Led Zeppelin going through the karaoke machine.

“Seriously? Everyone knows you don’t pick a song with long fucking instrumentals for karaoke night,” Charlie complained, taking up with other factions of the bar who were booing at the choice. She turned to see what Cas’ reaction was and was surprised to see his face had turned a very bright red.

“Cas?”

“What? I mean… yes, Charlie, what is it?” Cas said, looking down and away from her. Charlie frowned at his odd behavior before she put two and two together. Then she looked back and forth between Cas and the stage really quickly, before fixing her gaze on Cas.

“Seriously?” she said, a little amused now. “You two… uh, y’know? To this song?”

“Dean was very persistent,” said Castiel, doing his best to be stoic through his embarrassment. Charlie started snickering harder when she saw Dean wink at Cas, who responded by crossing his arms and doing his best to look unimpressed by Dean. “Stop laughing,” he muttered to Charlie.

“This isn’t even a good Led Zeppelin song,” Charlie whispered, continuing to snicker at him.

“You shook me all night long,” Dean crooned into the microphone, drunk enough to be slightly off key. He had enough charisma to pull it off, though, and even got a couple of cheers as he kept singing. Benny still ended up cutting him off before the end of the song when the karaoke version of the instrumental started playing. Dean left the stage proclaiming that nobody appreciated good fucking music anymore. Benny told him to quit being a grandpa and hurry up getting off the fucking stage.

He wasn’t off stage for long, however, since Charlie turned him around on his way down, because she was up next and not drunk enough to not be self-conscious about her voice. Dean raised an eyebrow, but caught on quickly and joined her on stage, to mixed reaction from the other people at the bar.

“I wanted to redeem my friend here. This next one’s going to be a lot more fun,” said Charlie, with a smirk at Dean when he exaggerated being offended. “This one’s dedicated to everyone who has to deal with shitty people in their lives.”

The song started up, and Dean began to laugh immediately, leaving Charlie to take the opening line by herself.

“I see you driving round town with the girl I love, and I’m like, fuck you!”

After that Dean and Charlie switched off lines, singing the chorus together, along with most of the other people in the bar. There was just something really relaxing about yelling “Fuck you” in a bar full of drunk strangers.

By the time the song was over, everyone was in a good mood, Charlie included. It was more funny than annoying when she and Dean got off stage and Dean immediately went to crawl onto Cas’ lap. Cas, being Cas, rolled his eyes and “tolerated it”, which meant he was actually having a good time putting his hand up the back of Dean’s shirt when he thought no one was looking, while Dean was doing his best to leave multiple hickeys on Cas’ neck.

This wouldn’t have had that much entertainment value if it weren’t for Sam saying every few seconds that if they didn’t stop he was actually going to pour bleach into his eyes.

“Then stop fucking looking, Sam,” Dean had snapped at last. Which started up a fight about PDA which eventually resulted in Dean sitting next to Cas instead of on top of him.

“My legs were falling asleep anyway,” Cas said, when he saw Dean was looking thoroughly annoyed. Dean just rolled his eyes at this and got back to drinking.

Sam decided to pass on karaoke that day, despite Charlie and Dean ragging on him for about an hour to sign up for a turn. After a while they finally accepted that Sam wasn’t up for singing that night.

Then they started putting the pressure on Cas.

“No.”

“C’mon,” Dean had said for the umpteenth time. “It’s not like you can’t sing.”

“I don’t like to make a spectacle of myself,” Castiel had responded, taking a sip from his second coke as he spoke. “You know that.”

“Just pick a lame song, then,” Charlie had said, pouting when Castiel had narrowed his eyes at her. “Join in on the fun for once. One of us could go up with you.”

“I’m not interested.”

“Are you interested in a bargain?” Dean asked, snapping his fingers as the idea struck him. “You go up and sing and I’ll-“

Dean lowered his voice and whispered something likely obscene in Castiel’s ear. Charlie watched as Cas’ grip on his plastic cup of coke tightened.

“Dean, I sing for you all the time,” Castiel protested as Dean kept whispering. “Why is this necessary?”

“Because it’s karaoke night and that means looking dumb for a hot second and then laughing about it afterwards,” said Charlie. She pulled out her best pout as part of her attempt at persuasion. “Just this once, and we’ll never ask again.”

Castiel raised a disbelieving eyebrow, but finally bowed under the pressure and went to sign up for one of the final slots of the night from Benny, who gave him a hard time about it. Castiel glared at the bartender before stalking back over to Charlie and Dean.

“Happy?” Castiel asked his partner and his boyfriend. They both smiled at him, and Dean gave him a thumb’s up. Sam, meanwhile, announced that he wasn’t waiting until one in the morning to hear Cas sing because Charlie and Dean were being annoying. Dean seemed to have realized something was wrong at the point because he offered to walk Sam out and call him a cab, which Sam let him do.

When he got back Charlie asked what was wrong and Dean grimaced.

“Eileen. She’s in Ireland on some kind of dangerous mission. Sam’s worried,” he said. “I wish he’d told us, and I wouldn’t have- I wouldn’t have given him such a hard time all night.”

Dean sighed and shrugged. He and Charlie changed the subject because there wasn’t much they could do about Eileen being gone, and thinking about it was kind of killing their buzz. Besides it was more fun to pick at Castiel for looking nervous as it got closer and closer to his turn in front of the microphone.

At long last, Castiel was called to the stage. He walked on looking like he’d rather be anywhere in the world, and a couple of a drunk twenty year olds near the front started offering up encouragement when they saw how uncertain he looked. Charlie was glad for it if only because it restored a bit of her faith that people on the whole wanted others to succeed.

Cas ended up closing his eyes when the song started so he wouldn’t have to look at anyone while he sang. It was some Sam Smith song that Charlie was pretty sure Cas only knew from having heard it one too many times on the radio.

“Can I lay by your side?”

Yeah, nobody was making fun of this one. If Charlie had to bet money, she’d say that despite Castiel’s protestations he had actually picked a song that had struck a chord with him and was now in the middle of baring his soul in a room full of people that would only ever judge him for it. No wonder he didn’t want to go up there. Charlie should have known, because Cas had two settings: keep the world at an insane distance or let people much too close much too quickly, and he really had never seemed to master a more stable in-between.

“Think he’s singing about you?” Charlie asked about halfway through the song. Dean shook his head slowly, eyes not leaving Castiel for a second.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “This is about someone else.”

Charlie thought about it for a moment.

“His mother?” she asked at last, knowing that Dean would be a lot more upset if it was about Meg, and that kind of mournful longing didn’t really seem to fit anyone else in Cas’ life.

“Yeah,” Dean said, his eyes wide and fixed on Cas as he finished the song. “He’s been missing her lately. He talks about her sometimes.”

Charlie nodded, a little put out despite herself. Cas still hadn’t told Charlie anything about his mother, or talked about her in any way. What she knew, she knew because she had looked up the information herself.

When Cas finished singing there was dead silence for a few seconds. Then the drunk people in front of the stage started shouting for him, and Cas hurried off the stage to what was kind of awed and scattered applause from everyone else. His dislike of being in the limelight was written across every line of his face.

He relaxed a little when he got back to the table and sat down next to Dean. He reached over and took Dean’s half finished drink and took a big swallow before putting it down. Dean patted him on the back.

“You alright, baby?” Dean asked, pulling Cas in a little closer.

“I’m not an infant. And I’m never doing that again,” Cas muttered. Dean rolled his eyes.

“It’s a term of endearment.”

Castiel rolled his eyes, because he knew that and Dean’s refusal to get his jokes sometimes pissed him off.

“Then perhaps it should be more endearing,” said Castiel, though he made no move to push Dean away from him. “I’m fine.”

Dean lifted two fingers to his head.

“Well, the spirits are telling me that that’s bullshit.”

“Are you sure they’re not telling you to go fuck yourself?” Castiel asked.

“No. But they are saying it’s time that you and me went home,” said Dean. Charlie’s eyes bugged out at the casual use of the word, and she didn’t miss the fact that Cas seemed just as surprised by the way Dean had phrased that. Dean didn’t seem to pick up on anything amiss, and considering he was slurring a little, Charlie had a feeling he hadn’t been picking his words all that carefully. “Charlie, do you need Cas to drive you to his place or…?”

“Jo will be up,” Charlie said, not wanting to kill whatever moment the two of them were probably going to have when Castiel screwed up the courage to ask just what Dean meant when he said ‘go home’. Or at least that’s what she was pretty sure was going through Cas’ head at the moment. “You guys can head out. I’ll be fine here. All by myself. Like always.”

Dean rolled his eyes and leaned down to kiss Charlie on the cheek before they left. He lifted to fingers to his forehead again and then looked down at Charlie while he put his coat on.

“The spirits are actually telling me that you’re going to meet the woman of your dreams very soon.”

Charlie looked up at him in surprise.

“You’re shitting me.”

Dean shook his head.

“Would I lie about great and powerful forces beyond my control?” he asked. “I promise, Charlie. You’re going to find someone amazing, and they’re still going to be lucky to be with you.”

Charlie didn’t have to think about standing up and hugging Dean.

“Thank you,” Charlie said into his side. Dean hugged her back, squeezing a moment before letting go.

“For what? Stating the obvious?” Dean asked. He looked over his shoulder to see Castiel waiting by the door. The officer had a kind of soft smile on his face watching the two of them, which he let smooth into a blank expression as soon as he saw Dean was watching him. “I’d stay longer Charles, but tall, dark, and handsome is calling for me.”

“Cas is shorter than you.”

“And don’t think I let him forget it,” Dean confirmed cheerfully. With that parting comment, he swaggered his way over to Cas. He tripped halfway across the room, but recovered gracefully enough. Or at least, Cas wasn’t outright laughing at him when he reached him. Charlie watched as Dean swung an arm around Cas’ shoulder and they walked out.

It looked nice, she thought to herself. Well, if Dean’s skills as a psychic held up, maybe she’d have something like that soon.

She could always hope.

*******ONE WEEK LATER*********

“So… what do you have to say for yourself?” asked Michael Milton, staring down the SBPD’s resident psychic, Dean Winchester. He looked up insolently. It might have been annoying if Michael thought the poor fraud had any idea what he was walking into.

“Am I being fired?”

“No,” said Jody, before Michael could open his mouth. “But in light of what happened this week… we’re questioning everyone involved.”

“And you saved me for last? That’s real sweet,” said Dean, leaning back and smiling. “All I have to say about what happened is that it could have happened to anyone, and it isn’t Charlie’s fault.”

Michael smiled tightly and picked up his notes from his other interviews.

“Let’s review the events of the past week then,” he said. “Starting on Monday the thirteenth.”

***OFFICERS HANSCUM AND ALFRED***

MONDAY

Donna and Alfie were both gathered around Castiel’s desk muttering to each other when he walked in. Castiel sat down, and looked up at the two of them. Donna spoke first.

“Heya there, Cas, how was your weekend?” Donna asked.

“It was… nice,” Castiel said, taking out files to review as he waited for either Donna or Alfie to get to the point. As he leaned down, Alfie noticed a series of bruises on his neck.

“You didn’t get into a fight, did you?” he asked, instantly worried. Donna laughed when she saw what Alfie is talking about.

“Those are the fun kind of bruises, Alfie,” she whispered helpfully. Alfie started stuttering, and Cas immediately covered his neck with his hand. “I think Novak’s weekend was a ways past nice.”

“That’s none of your business,” Cas said back coolly. He let his voice soften a little after that so that neither of his colleagues would take it personally however. He did consider Donna and Alfie to be his friends. “But if you have something work related…?”

“No, but Alfie wanted to invite you to his shindig,” said Donna, elbowing her partner.

“Baptism,” Alfie corrected. He smiled. “For Hael.

Castiel nodded at Alfie with a small smile, and they left his desk to grab his coffee from Charlie, who had just walked in the door.

***JOHN WINCHESTER***

MONDAY

“Dad!” Dean shouted, hopping off of his motorcycle and knocking on the door. “Dad!”

John Winchester let out a long suffering sigh, put down his morning newspaper and opened the door.

“What?”

“Jeez, grouchy much?” Dean muttered. “I just wanted to see if we were still going to set up a surprise dinner or something for Sam and Eileen when Eileen gets back. Sam steals my phone sometimes, so I didn’t want to text about…”

Dean’s eyes slid down to the same flip phone his dad had been using for years.

“You still haven’t set up the phone I got you, have you?”

“I don’t know how you stand those things, Dean,” John grumbled, going back to reading his newspaper. “All of those buttons and flashy zapps or whatever you call them.”

Dean didn’t hesitate opening the drawer that had several other flip phones along with a box that had clearly been unopened. Dean looked up at John with clear accusation in his eyes.

“They’re called apps, dad. And did you seriously not even touch this? I got you this phone for Christmas.”

“It’s not like you’ve been fishing with me. You send your boyfriend instead,” said John, still pretending to read the newspaper as Dean took the phone out of the packaging.

“That was one time. And you said that you and Cas had a good time,” Dean muttered, fiddling with the phone and inputting the information it asked for to set it up. “Give me your hand.”

“Why?”

“Because it opens based on your thumbprint. I made the password the same as your PIN number. You can change it later,” said Dean. John pressed his finger to the phone long enough for it to get a thumbprint, and then went back to passive aggressively ignoring Dean.

“What?” Dean asks, finally breaking.

“You’ve been distant.”

“I haven’t been distant. I’ve been trying to make sure Cas didn’t try to check himself out of the hospital early or call Jody at two in the morning to ask when he can start working again,” Dean replied trying to be reasonable. He waited for John to say something else, then just sighed. “We’ll have dinner. Us, Sam and Eileen. That good enough for you?”

“You should invite, Cas,” said John. He paused a moment before adding: “And I can bring Kate.”

“I don’t want to meet Kate.”

“Dean-“

“I don’t want to meet Kate,” Dean repeated. “Look, it’s Cas’ first case back. He might have lost a step, so I should really go.”

John sighed, and accepted the phone Dean had set up for him as Dean left as quickly as he had arrived.

“Use the fucking phone,” Dean called behind him as the door slammed closed.

“Watch your fucking language,” John yelled after him.

***********************

“You interviewed my dad?” Dean asked loudly, looking at Jody who sighed.

“He worked on the case.”

“Because Sam had to take care of his girlfriend. He didn’t have anything to do with what happened with Dorothy.”

“It doesn’t matter why we interviewed him,” Michael cut in. “Were you planning on disclosing your relationship with Officer Castiel Novak to the Santa Barbara Police Department?”

“Not really,” said Dean. He glared at Michael in challenge. “Considering I’m a separate agency that’s hired on a case by case basis, rules about intra-department dating don’t really apply to me. And it’s kind of a shitty move to out someone at their work place.”

“So Novak hasn’t pressured you into anything or made unwanted advances?” Michael questioned coolly.

“No. And he didn’t do anything like that to Anna either. And I am one hundred percent sure she told you that.”

“Please leave my sister out of this.”

“You just asked if my boyfriend is sexually harassing me. It sounds like you’re fishing for something.”

“The truth. That’s all,” said Michael. “Shall we continue?”

Dean glanced between Jody and Michael, and let his shoulders slump before nodding for Michael to continue.

***OFFICER CHARLIE BRADBURY***

MONDAY

“Morning Cas,” said Charlie, passing him his coffee. “Where’s your better half?”

“Probably sleeping,” Cas muttered. “Am I not the better half to you? In the case that this all ends horribly, you’re going to be on my side, correct?”

“No duh, Cas. It’s an expression,” said Charlie. “I just figured he’d get here early or-“

Charlie cut herself off when she saw a woman walk in the door. The woman looked around a little nervously and then walked up to Missouri’s desk, speaking quietly to her. Missouri didn’t answer as quietly, but she was still too far away for Charlie to make out what they were saying.

“I’m just going to,” Charlie said, making a few gestures with her hands before going over to see what was going. A decision which had nothing to do with the fact that the woman was drop dead gorgeous. Not at all.

“Please, I need to speak with whoever is in charge. It’s urgent,” said the woman to Missouri, who just kept squinting at her suspiciously.

“You don’t have good energy about you,” she said. “Until you tell me what it is exactly you want to be telling to Chief Mills, you aren’t getting past this desk. We’ve had enough trouble.”

“Hey Missouri,” Charlie broke in. Missouri made an all suffering expression before answering.

“Hello, Charlie,” said Missouri warily. “Your partner doing alright? He’s back on active duty today, right?”

“Cas is fine,” said Charlie, barely acknowledging Missouri before she was sizing up Dorothy again. “What’s going on here?”

“Well, this young lady-“

“I have to talk to the chief,” said Dorothy, eyes locking on Charlie. “As soon as possible.”

Charlie looked at Missouri who was shaking her head and mouthing trouble at Charlie.

“Why do you need to speak to her?” Charlie asked. The woman’s mouth snapped shut, and although her expression didn’t change there was barely concealed fear in her eyes. “Okay, what’s your name?”

“Dorothy,” she said.

“Okay Dorothy, why do you need to talk to Jody?” asked Charlie. Dorothy shook her head and Charlie reached out to put a hand on her arm. “You’re safe here, okay?”

“Charlie Bradbury,” Missouri said, completely unamused. Charlie threw her a pleading look and Missouri threw her hands up and went back to working through her paperwork. “Your funeral.”

Dorothy looked at Missouri for quite a while before she managed to focus back in on Charlie.

“I… I’m here to ask for immunity in exchange for naming names for Crowley’s inner circle,” she said. Charlie blinked.

“I think you should probably talk to the chief,” said Charlie, removing her hand from Dorothy’s arm and clearing her head of anything unprofessional, because this was big. “When you said your name was Dorothy… you wouldn’t happen to be Dorothy Baum?”

Dorothy nodded hesitantly, expectation of being put in handcuffs clear in her expression.

“Okay,” Charlie said to herself. “Cas! Come over here and watch her. I need to have a talk with Jody.”

***PSYCHIC ASSISTANT SAM WINCHESTER***

MONDAY

“Why do you always have to drive?” Sam asked when Dean stole the keys from him. “Seriously, are you twelve?”

“No,” said Dean defensively. He gestured towards the car. “You ride the brakes.”

“I do not!”

“And I’m older.”

“You know what? Whatever. I don’t care,” said Sam, sitting himself down in the passenger seat and angrily switching off the music that started blaring when Dean started the car.

“You haven’t heard back from Eileen yet, have you?” said Dean, not pulling out of the driveway. Sam shrugged, a bit of his anger fading to worry. Dean swallowed and sighed before taking the keys out of the ignition. “You drive.”

“What?”

“It’s your car. Dad gave it to you, not me,” said Dean. “You should drive.”

He passed over the keys and got out of the car. Sam moved to the driver’s seat and started the car, waiting for Dean to walk around so he could sit shotgun.

“Thanks,” said Sam after a few seconds. “This is your car, too. You know that right?”

Dean smiled a second before pretending to pinch his face in worry in order to add a bit of levity to the exchange.

“You’re still going to pay the insurance though, right?”

“God, you’re an ass,” Sam muttered, unable to keep himself from smiling as they started driving. “So, you sick of Cas yet? You’ve spent pretty much all your time the past few weeks with him.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sam glanced over and was surprised to see his brother actually looked a bit pissed off at that question.

“Nothing.”

“It’s never nothing, Sam.”

“You just usually don’t last longer than a week or two with one person. You get cute with someone and then you just sort of distance yourself from them,” said Sam, trying to word it carefully. “It’s not fun to watch, and I just wanted to make sure that’s not going to happen again any time soon.”

Dean frowned, and Sam could see a hint of anger that Dean was obviously trying to keep in check.

“Cas and I aren’t cute,” he said. “We’re serious adults in a serious adult relationship. That’s… responsible. Mature, some might say.”

“Is that really what you got from what I just said?” said Sam.

“Yeah, pretty much,” said Dean. “What do you have against Cas, anyway?”

“I don’t have anything against Cas,” Sam said, rolling his eyes. “He seems like a nice guy. Sometimes. I’m just not in love with him like you are.”

“Never said I was in love with him,” said Dean immediately. Yeah, that instant defensiveness wasn’t the world’s best sign when it came to watching out for Dean repeating old patterns. “But, uh, maybe it’s a close thing.”

Now that was more of a surprise.

“Really?” Sam asked, not doing anything to hide the fact he was a little bit blindsided by Dean’s openness.

“Yeah, really,” Dean muttered. He smiled a little to himself. Then he snapped his head up like he had just gotten an idea, and Sam looked over to see an expression on Dean’s face that never meant something good was about to happen. “Which is why you and Cas are going to work together on this next case. I’ll team up with Charlie, and you guys can have some time to play nice together.”

“Jesus Christ Dean, I don’t need to be friends with Cas,” said Sam, trying to blow off the plan before Dean was really set on it.

“I’m friends with Eileen!”

“Nobody made you, Dean.”

“You seriously don’t care about my opinion of the girl you’re going to be married to?” Dean asked, incredulous. “And you know, thanks for the head’s up on that. Not like I had to hear about it in a text message from Eileen instead of my own brother.”

“Cas was in the hospital!” said Sam. “What was I supposed to say? Shucks, Dean, that’s awful how your boyfriend just got shot, but guess what, I’m getting married?”

Dean’s glare pretty much said yes, that’s what he wanted. Yeah, right. Like Sam was going to apologize for trying to be sensitive to Dean’s feelings.

“You owe me. I want you and Cas to be friends, so you’re going to be friends whether you like it or not,” said Dean.

Sam rolled his eyes, but decided it wasn’t worth fighting his brother on this.

“Fine. We split up for this one case.”

********************

“You’re making Sam sound too intelligent,” Dean interrupted belligerently. Jody gave him a look that practically shouted shut up. “He sounds a lot more like ‘blah blah bla-blah blah…”

“You should really take this seriously, Mr. Winchester,” said Michael. “Regardless of any discrepancy in your brother’s intelligence, can you at least confirm that you suggested splitting up for any case you were involved in?”

“Yeah, sure,” said Dean. “I suggested we split up, and I’d planned it earlier, but it still made sense. Charlie and I could keep an eye on Dorothy while Cas kept an eye on the people she turned in to see if he could nail them for doing illegal shit. It was a good plan.”

“What I’m failing to see is why you would be making that plan,” said Michael. “Considering you’re supposed to be here to support the SBPD, not lead it. I was under the impression that was Mrs. Mills-“

“Chief Mills,” Jody and Dean interrupted instantly. Michael raised an eyebrow at the two of them.

“… was in charge. No matter. Let’s continue,” Michael said.

***OFFICER CASTIEL NOVAK***

TUESDAY

“So… what are you thinking about?” asked Sam about half an hour into staking out one of the addresses Dorothy had given them.

“The last time we spent this amount of time together without Dean or Charlie here, we both were kidnapped and nearly killed.”

Sam swallowed.

“Okay,” he said. Cas went back to staring down the garage door of the warehouse. “So, you and Dean that’s, uh… that’s a thing.”

“For quite a while now.”

“Right. So you really like him?”

“If this is one of those conversations where you threaten to hurt me if I hurt him, I’d like to remind you that I am much stronger and typically better armed than you are and any threats you make against me will fall flat.”

Sam made a face.

“I wasn’t going to do that.”

“Sorry, I wouldn’t know. Meg didn’t have any siblings. I’ve heard they can be overprotective,” said Castiel. “Jo hasn’t done anything to disprove that theory.”

Sam kept his eyes on the door they were staking out as he asked the next question.

“So… just to make sure…. you’re not going to freak out on Dean about the whole sexuality thing?”

“Odd as it may seem, I was aware that I found men attractive before I met your brother. He may be good-looking but he isn’t magic.”

Sam snorted at that.

“Please say that in front of his face. His ego needs a little deflating.”

“Only a little?” Cas said under his breath. He was surprised to see Sam grin at the comment. Cas tried for a friendly smile back, but he had a feeling by the way Sam’s face fell a little it wasn’t what he was hoping for. Cas was a little confused by the conversation now.

“So what do you get up to when you’re not here or with Dean?” Sam asked next.

“Jo, Charlie and I are trying to make it through a Power Puff girls box set my mom got Jo for Christmas,” said Cas. “We’ve started calling Charlie Blossom because of it. Jo likes to think she’s Buttercup.”

“Wouldn’t that make you Bubbles?” asked Sam.

“No,” said Cas, in a weary tone that he was sure revealed that both Charlie and Jo had had the same thought many times.

“Wait, so you’ll watch the Power Puff girls, but you won’t watch Star Trek?” asked Sam, incredulously. Cas frowned at that, and then realization struck him.

“Does Dean complain about me to you?” Cas asked, clearly irritated. “As though his interests are so ‘cool’ and ‘societally acceptable’. I certainly wasn’t the one who suggested watching the entirety of Titanic while I was in the hospital.”

“Did he cry?” Sam asked. Castiel side-eyed him. “Just out of scientific curiosity.”

“I’m not going to help you make fun of your brother,” said Cas, starting up the car as he saw the garage they were staking out open and several men and women climb into a van.

“C’mon, it would drive Dean insane,” said Sam. “And what’s the point of having friends if you don’t help them torture other people?”

Cas sped off after the van, and it took him a second to realize what Sam had said.

“Are we friends?” he asked cautiously, in case he’d missed something. He hadn’t known he was dating Meg for the first three weeks of their relationship. Asking for clarification seemed to be the best option.

“Not really,” Sam admitted. “But Dean wants us to be. That’s why he had this whole split up and solve the case plan. He wanted us to ‘bond’ or something.”

“I’ve never been very good at trying to make friends,” said Cas next. He had stumbled into everything good in his life, and he was grateful for that. But he had to admit he’d always been a little envious of people like Dean who could just by sheer force of will make almost anyone like them.

“Yeah. Me neither,” Sam muttered.

Cas focused on tailing the people they were monitoring without being obvious about it. But he couldn’t quite let it go at that.

“I would like to get better at it, though,” said Castiel. And then more quietly. “And… only at the part where Jack dies.”

Sam grinned.

************************

“Oh, so it worked,” said Dean. “Awesome.”

“Would you shut the hell up, Winchester,” Jody said in exasperation. “You understand why Mr. Milton is here, don’t you?”

Dean stared at Michael and made a show of pressing his fingers to his head.

“Yeah. I understand Michael Milton here has a grudge against Cas and wants to pin this whole thing on him. I understand he’s reputation conscious and doesn’t like the fact that his sister had to request a transfer because she was screwing her partner. I also know he’s looking for a promotion and works for the mayor, who wants to claim he’s coming down hard on corruption. Basically this is a setup and no matter what I say, he’s going to take it out on someone.”

That someone might as well be me went unsaid, but it was obvious Jody heard it anyway. She sighed heavily as she realized Dean was being extra irritating on purpose and just how much harder that was going to make everything.

“Also, he has daddy issues like you wouldn’t-“

“Winchester, if you know what’s good for you, you won’t finish that sentence,” said Jody, looking him in the eye and silently pleading for him to just shut up. “If you respect me at all, you will finish this session like the professional I know you can be, is that understood?”

Dean looked at her for a long time, trying to figure out exactly what her angle was. She could see the moment when it hit him.

“Yeah, Jody,” he said sadly. “I understand.”

Michael, for his part just looked faintly annoyed at the interruption. Dean might have gotten a little under his skin by summing him up so quickly (and obnoxiously), but it was clear now that Michael didn’t care if his opponents knew his agenda. He knew he’d get what he wanted anyway.

“So Officer Novak and Sam Winchester apprehended four of Crowley’s inner circle,” said Michael in a measured tone. “And meanwhile…”

***OFFICER CHARLIE BRADBURY***

TUESDAY

“Do you know anything else we can use?” asked Charlie. Dorothy shook her head. “We’re going to want you to be a witness. There are options if you don’t feel safe-“

“I’ll be fine,” said Dorothy. “I’ve made it this long.”

Charlie nodded. She didn’t realize how long she was just sort of looking at Dorothy after that before someone cleared their throat right next to her.

Oh right. Dean was there too.

“Brad to the bury, can I speak to you for a minute?” said Dean, glancing at Dorothy with a polite smile that didn’t seem quite genuine.

“If you promise never to call me that again,” said Charlie. She looked back at Dorothy. “We’ll be back in a second.”

She and Dean went out the door of the interrogation room and shut it behind them. Charlie turned back to look at Dean who looked like he was working up his way to saying something.

“What?”

“I just don’t like this,” said Dean. “Why is she turning on all of them? She still hasn’t given us a reason, and I just… I’m getting bad vibes from this whole thing.”

“Maybe she wanted to do the right thing,” said Charlie. “Sometimes people change.”

“And sometimes they don’t,” said Dean. “I don’t trust her.”

**********************

So Charlie hadn’t told Michael what had actually happened, Dean thought to himself. Good.

For one thing, she was covering his ass quite a bit by saying he’d tried that hard to convince Charlie that Dorothy was bad news. He’d mentioned, and tried to get the point across. But he hadn’t had the heart to really try after Charlie had told him two things.

The first was the name Celeste Middleton, the existence of which Dean had suspected since he first met Charlie. Sure, she was trying to escape Azazel when she’d left her last identity behind, but that one was far from her first. And behind it all was the teenage Celeste Middleton who went to juvy for hacking into a company’s server and releasing a video game early. Tack on to that a lot of other stuff on the wrong side of legal, and Dean could understand why she was so keen to trust that Dorothy was turning herself around. She had to believe people could really do that.

The second was Charlie telling Dean that she didn’t know why, but she thought that Dorothy was the ‘girl of her dreams’ the spirits might have been talking about. And much as he was ashamed of it, Dean couldn’t bring himself to admit that telling her that had been a drunken mistake to make her feel better. It was easier to just let her be happy, and hope beyond hope that Charlie was right and Dorothy was turning over a new leaf.

“Do you agree with Charlie’s account of how your interrogation and subsequent conversation went?” Michael asked, and Dean had to give the guy points for paying attention to Dean’s reactions to what he was saying. He was still evil, but he was the smart kind of evil.

“Yes,” said Dean. Michael took down notes and Dean stayed quiet while he did so. Like hell he would ever give up any of Charlie’s secrets, and Michael would have a hell of a time trying to track down her past. Charlie was good at what she could do, even if she didn’t really do the whole illegal hacking thing anymore. And she deserved her second chance.

“Nothing to add?” Michael asked, trying a little too hard to look casually curious. Dean shook his head. “Alright. Sometime after this your brother says that he was contacted by his girlfriend who had been injured at work.”

“Yeah. She flew in and got there early Wednesday morning. Sam let his other job know there was a family emergency and kept me updated. She’s fine, but is going to have spend some time off of work and wanted to be home while she recovered,” said Dean. “I called my dad to fill in for Sam while that was happening.”

“Do your brother and father also claim to be psychic?” asked Michael.

“Nope. Just me,” said Dean. “They, uh… they both know how to help me channel the spirits.”

“Right.”

“How about we get this rolling again,” said Jody, interrupting whatever line of questioning Michael was thinking up. “We’ll go over what happened Wednesday.”

Dean nodded for Jody to continue

“Sam was at home taking care of his fiancee,” Jody said, looking through Michael’s notes. “And…”

***OFFICERS HANSCUM AND ALFRED***

WEDNESDAY

Donna and Alfie were busy ribbing each other about their weekend when they saw Dorothy loitering inside the police station near Charlie’s desk. Alfie nudged Donna with his elbow and they both walk over to where she is.

“Did you need something or other?” asked Donna politely. “Charlie will be in soon, but ya really shouldn’t be back here right now.”

Dorothy’s eyes were a little wide at being confronted. She shifted as Donna and Alfie watched her suspiciously.

“I’m sorry,” she tried. “I just, I-“

“Dorothy?” said Charlie from the front of the station. She moved towards her desk. “What are you doing here? I thought you already told us everything you-“

“I did,” Dorothy interrupted. Her face was blank for a moment before she looked to be in distress. “I guess I lied about being fine on my own.”

“No one found out-“

“No,” said Dorothy. “I’m just… scared. And I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

She smiled up at Charlie, looking a little embarrassed.

“Really?” Charlie breathed out. When she saw that both Donna and Alfie were staring at her she cleared her throat loudly. “I mean… Dorothy, unless you have more information or you’re feeling unsafe, you really shouldn’t-“

“Can I stay here?” she asked. “Just for a little while?”

“We can watch her,” Donna offered, eyes locked on Dorothy in a way that wasn’t all that trusting. “Alfie and I are at a dead end on our case, and we were gonna take the morning to catch up on paperwork.”

Alfie nodded at Charlie. She mouthed thank you at them both before looking back at Dorothy.

“Okay. Cas and I have to do some surveillance today, but I’ll be back before two, okay Dorothy? And if anything happens,” said Charlie, pausing to write down her cell phone number and handing it to her. “Call me.”

Dorothy pocketed the number.

***JOHN WINCHESTER***

WEDNESDAY

“This is a crime.”

“You’re just upset that you’re losing,” said John as he made his next move on Words with Friends. The word flashed up on Dean’s screen, and John watched as his son’s expression soured further.

“Oh, so when I explain to you how to use your phone, selfie isn’t a word, but now that it’s convenient for you suddenly it doesn’t sound so made up anymore, does it?” Dean muttered with a scowl.

Dean glared down at his phone and John couldn’t help but smile as he watched him play his next move.

“Take that, old man,” said Dean, putting in the next word. The good feelings of finally getting to spend a few hours with his son were put on the back burner when he looked down and saw that Dean had somehow come up with a two hundred point word.

“How is that fair?” said John, narrowing his eyes at the phone. Dean laughed at his expression.

“You should see mom play. She kills me at this game every time. Pulls the weirdest words out of thin air.”

After saying that, something about Dean’s face fell and he went back to doing what they were supposed to be doing, which was staking out another one of the buildings that Dorothy had given them to watch. Charlie and Castiel were watching the more likely point of exit, and Dean was supposed to call them if he saw anything unusual (physically or spiritually).

“How is Mary doing?” John asked after a few minutes had gone by.

“Fine,” said Dean. He kept quiet for a little longer before saying next. “She’s been kind of distant since this whole thing with Cas started. She hasn’t called me in a while.”

“I’m sure that’s not why,” said John. Dean shrugged, trying not to look to put out about it. “I know you two are close.”

Close enough that it still put a bitter taste in John’s mouth sometimes. He loved Mary, and he loved Dean, but he had never quite forgiven either of them for Dean running away from home so he could live with his mother.

“I’m not making a mistake, right?” Dean asked, sounding much younger than he usually did. Or maybe that was John’s imagination because it had been so many years since Dean had sounded like he cared about what John thought even a little bit. It made John pause in a way he wouldn’t have in the past. God knows he never shied away from telling Dean just how he thought the boy should live. Who he should be. But all that had ever led to was Dean’s bitterness and, damn it, John wanted to fix things.

“I don’t think you are,” John said. “But that’s something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself. It doesn’t really matter what me or your mother thinks. You’ve got a head on your shoulders. Sometimes.”

“Wow, thanks,” Dean muttered sarcastically.

“You’re going to make the decision you need to in the end,” John finished. Dean nodded, not really looking at anything.

“Thanks,” he repeated, but less sarcastic this time. John nodded in return and then decided that was enough taking it easy on his kid for one day.

“So when are we going to go fishing?” asked John next. “I swear, you work all the god damn time and you don’t even have a real job. My schedule is wide open, Dean.”

“Jesus Christ, we’ll get around to it,” Dean answered back, but he was still kind of smiling.

Both of them, had missed one of the far doors opening and three people sneaking out of the building. It wasn’t until one of the cars started that Dean and John’s attention snapped back to where it should have been. One of the people was clutching their stomach and supported by the other two, and it didn’t take a genius to see they were bleeding. Dean called Cas within seconds.

“We’ve got three on this side, they just got in a car,” said Dean.

“Shit,” Charlie said back, surprising Dean a little. “Cas and I are in pursuit of six people that came out of the front. Call back up, and try to get a plate number.”

“Okay.”

“Do not chase them, Dean Winchester,” said Charlie next. “Call Missouri or Jody and ask for them to send back up. Are we clear?”

“Uh huh,” said Dean and then hung up. He passed the phone over to John. “Call Missouri. Tell her we need back up and keep her updated on where we are.”

Dean turned on the engine and peeled after the car that sped past them. John called the number Dean had asked him to, requested back up and gave Missouri the plate number of the car.

“What are you doing?” asked John, trying to get Dean to think. He held his hand over the phone so Missouri couldn’t hear this part of the conversation.

“Chasing after them, what do you think?” said Dean. He let out a shout of frustration as the car they were chasing made a quick right that Dean had to shoot past because he was driving too fast to follow. “Damn it!”

“Dean, where are they going to go?” John asked next. “Think.”

“How am I supposed to-“

“Pullover and think,” said John. So Dean did.

“Two men and a woman. One of the men was injured. They didn’t see us, but they were still running from something. The bleeding guy’s going to die if they don’t get him somewhere that can replace the blood he’s lost so… closest hospital?”

“Sounds reasonable to me,” said John. Dean nodded and drove.

When they got to the hospital, it was to find the three people they had been chasing neatly tied up in the lobby. The man who had been bleeding out was being looked after by one of the doctors as best as could be managed, but it looked like he wasn’t going to make it through. Dean and John exchanged confused glances as they tried to ask the terrified nurses and doctors on duty just what the hell had happened.

Almost everyone refused. Only one nurse said anything that offered even a clue as to who had caught and restrained the three criminals.

“She said if we told, she’d come back,” the nurse squeaked out. “Just take them and leave. We don’t want that kind of trouble.”

She wouldn’t say anything after that.

***OFFICER CASTIEL NOVAK***

WEDNESDAY

“I can’t believe they got away,” Charlie muttered.

“Do you want to drive?” Castiel asked, not bothering to hide his frustration. He hit the steering wheel in frustration as they tried another road. “I don’t even think they were running from us.”

“They could have known we were there,” said Charlie.

“Then they’d try to wait us out. They were in a rush to get far away from something in that building or-“

Castiel cut himself off when he saw the car they had been chasing off the side of the road, having been crashed into and smashed in. He pulled over, tires squealing.

“How close is backup?” he asked Charlie, taking his gun out of his belt in case anyone in the overturned car tried to shoot him.

“Five minutes,” said Charlie.

“Let them know we may need an ambulance,” said Castiel. “I’m going to go get a look.”

“Please don’t get shot again.”

“I don’t plan to,” said Castiel. “Did Dean say anything useful?”

“If he had a vision, he didn’t tell me about it,” said Charlie. Castiel sighed and got out of the car, warily approaching the crashed car on the side of the road. He didn’t like the look of the injuries the people inside had sustained, but everyone looked to be alive.

The man behind the wheel, who was slumped awkwardly against the ceiling, trying to remove his seatbelt from where it was cutting into his windpipe. Castiel opened the door and hauled him out, quickly placing him in cuffs before trying to pull out the other five people in the car, three of whom were unconscious.

Charlie, Jenna, and Alicia were there to help him within a few minutes. The ambulance got there soon after.

“Who do you think hit them?” asked Charlie. Castiel shook his head, still confused. “You’re not the only one who thinks they were running from someone. Dean called while you were getting them out. He says he thinks someone else is going after the people Dorothy is turning in. Or at the very least making sure we catch them.”

“Without Crowley, someone has to fill the power vacuum, and he’s not getting out of prison anytime soon, now,” said Castiel. “I’m going to guess this is infighting.”

“Huh,” said Charlie. “But then Dorothy telling us who to go after would probably help-“

She and Cas stared at each other as they realized just what that might mean.

“Call Donna,” said Cas.

***OFFICERS HANSCUM AND ALFRED***

WEDNESDAY

Dorothy tried to be as subtle as possible as she took a flash drive she had kept pressed up her sleeve and pressed it into the USB port for Charlie’s computer. The monitor lit up and displayed a scrolling percentage bar for downloading some kind of malware. Fortunately, Donna had been watching her for the past half an hour and hadn’t stopped now.

“Whatcha doing?” Donna asked, instantly suspicious. She got up and Dorothy lost any semblance of pretending to be afraid. The bar inched closer to finishing the download.

“Nothing.”

Donna looked down at the flash drive and made a move for it, only to be elbowed in the face by Dorothy, arm twisted behind her back, and shoved a few feet away from the desk. Donna got up as quickly as she could, ready to tackle Dorothy again.

As it turned out she didn’t have to. Missouri snuck up behind Dorothy with a thick binder and smacked her head hard enough to knock Dorothy off her feet before yanking the flash drive out of the computer right as it the scrolling bar reached 95%.

“I told you all she had bad energy. But does anyone listen to me? No,” said Missouri out loud while everyone stared at her. Dorothy started to pick herself up off the ground, but Donna was quick to recover and make sure she stayed down.

“I don’t think so, missy,” she said to Dorothy, who just glared back at her. “Alfie, pass me some cuffs?”

“Sure thing,” said Alfie. As he did so, Donna’s phone started ringing and she nodded at him to answer it. “Hello?”

“Arrest Dorothy,” said Charlie instantly. “I think she’s been feeding us info so we pick off-“

“No worries. Donna already took care of it,” said Alfie, smiling at his partner with pride. “We’ll see you back at the station, then. Tell Castiel I said hello.”

“Oh… okay,” said Charlie, somewhere between relieved and caught off guard. “Awesome.”

***OFFICER CHARLIE BRADBURY***

WEDNESDAY

Dorothy sat across from Castiel and Charlie silent and uncooperative. Castiel asked several measured questions of her, none of which she answered. At last Charlie couldn’t help but break her own silence in an attempt to get Dorothy to talk.

“We already know you’re not turning over a new leaf,” she said scathingly. “The more you admit to now, the better deal we’ll be able to cut for you.”

“You agreed to immunity in exchange for information,” said Dorothy coolly. “You have nothing to bargain with.”

Charlie’s mouth snapped shut as she realized just how right Dorothy was. Dorothy narrowed her eyes at Charlie, and smiled thinly.

“It wasn’t personal,” she said, sounding almost like she was trying to be gentle. “You just seemed so eager to believe that someone might be interested you. It was just easy.”

Charlie almost shot out of her seat, but Castiel’s hand on her arm kept her still and just glaring at Dorothy.

“My partner doesn’t know what you’re talking about,” said Castiel firmly, squeezing Charlie’s arm imperceptibly in a silent show of solidarity. “And we’re uninterested in your methods of persuasion. You’re working for someone. Who are they?”

“Will my lawyer be here soon?” Dorothy said, in lieu of an answer.

Try as they might, Castiel and Charlie couldn’t get her to talk.

**********************

Dean watched as Michael closed the files he had been looking at and looked up at Dean.

“Would you like to walk us through the events on Thursday, Mr. Winchester?” he asked. Dean stared back, not saying anything either way. “I’m waiting.”

“Dean,” Jody warned. Dean looked at her and then back at Michael.

“Fine,” he said. “Cas thought it might be a good idea for me to try to question Dorothy too, but…”

*** ALLEGED PSYCHIC DEAN WINCHESTER***

THURSDAY

“Hey Charlie,” said Dean the second he got in. “How are you doing?”

“She’s fine,” said Castiel, and Charlie nodded behind him, not looking quite so confidant.

“I just feel so stupid,” she muttered.

“You aren’t stupid,” said Castiel instantly. “She took advantage of you. The fault lies with her, not you.”

“I let her, though,” said Charlie. “She was just so-“

“Beautiful?” asked someone who had just walked into the police station. “Stunning? Charming?”

Dean, Castiel, and Charlie turned around to see a woman in a leather jacket, slacks, and a button up shirt stroll into the police station. She smiled at all of them, teeth blinding white.

“Who are you?” asked Castiel warily.

“Dorothy Baum’s lawyer,” she said, with a grin. “Abigail Donlan. Can you please show me to my client? I’d like to see her released as soon as possible.”

“And I’m sure the two of you have a very professional relationship,” said Dean sarcastically. “Seeing as you find her so ‘stunning’ and everything.”

“She’s got a thing for redheads,” Abigail said, eyes shifting to Charlie who had noticeably flinched. It was said a little vindictively, but not jealous. No, Dean had a feeling Abigail just really enjoyed winding people up, and Charlie wasn’t the world’s hardest target at the moment. She walked a little closer than comfortable to Dean, obviously trying to rile him up too. “You must be the psychic I’ve heard so much about. I’d love to see that in action.”

Her nails were long and sharpened to points and Dean swallowed when she tapped the end of one under his chin, because Jesus she could slice his throat with those monsters.

“You and Dorothy are together.”

“You already said that.”

“You both used to work for Crowley, but now that he’s out of the picture you’re trying to move up the ladder.”

“Doesn’t sound like something you can prove,” said Abigail, still smirking. Dean was vaguely aware of Cas glaring at her behind him, and had no doubt Charlie was also less than impressed. Dean hated to admit it, but he was more intimidated than he was letting on. Something about Abigail made him certain that she really would use her nails to cut his throat if she got bored with him. Or a knife. Hell, a spoon if she was feeling vindictive. He had a feeling she wasn’t picky.

“You stopped for roses on the way here,” said Dean, having noticed some small pinpricks on her fingers and a piece of a petal that clung to her slacks. “Because you think you’ve won. Dorothy didn’t tell you that the flash drive didn’t have any effect on the SBPD server, because you would have made her wait another day or two to pick her up if you knew she’d failed.”

Abigail’s smile dropped instantly, and she seemed to size Dean up again.

“Useful talent,” she said, sounding almost respectful. “Could be more useful making more money than you could hope to here.”

“I’m good,” said Dean, keeping his voice steady. She shrugged, clearly unconvinced he wasn’t interested.

“Think about it,” she said. “Now get me Dorothy.”

Alfie did that, and the three of them watched Dorothy and Abigail go. Abigail put her arm around Dorothy’s shoulder, but it was more demanding than it was affectionate. Dorothy didn’t seem to mind, and if anything looked smugly amused with Abigail’s irritation. Dean thought that was playing with fire, but he wasn’t going to flag Dorothy down to tell her that.

“This is why I’m glad Sam didn’t actually go to law school. All lawyers are scary.”

“My sister’s in law school,” Castiel pointed out.

“Are you trying to say Jo isn’t scary?” Charlie asked, which was a good point. Castiel conceded with a shrug as they watched the door close behind Abigail and Dorothy.

“And why do the bad guys always hit on me?” Dean said next, trying to make light of it all. “Do I just have one of those faces?”

“She wasn’t hitting on you, she was trying to intimidate you,” said Castiel, who was still busy glaring after her. “You should be more careful.”

“I am careful,” said Dean. “And if you think someone can’t flirt and intimidate at the same time, I’m very concerned what exactly it is you thought I was doing for the first five months I knew you.”

“I thought you were making fun of me,” Castiel said without hesitation.

“I also thought you were making fun of him,” Charlie said, though she still sounded a little distant from the conversation. Dean’s attention swiveled to her. “So… new crime power couple. That’s going to be fun.”

“At least we know who they are,” Dean pointed out. “We’ll get them next time. Shit just kinda hit the fan this go around.”

“Yeah,” said Charlie. “Because of me.”

“Charlie-“ Cas started.

“No. Stop saying it isn’t my fault. Stop acting like I didn’t fuck up, okay!” Charlie shouted. The rest of the station, who had been at least pretending not to be curious about what they were talking about were now all just staring at them in silence. “I’m sorry. I need- I just need some air.”

Charlie walked out, everyone staring at her as she left.

***********************

Michael kept taking notes even after Dean stopped talking. At long last he was finished and looked up at Dean, again.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Go to hell.”

“Winchester,” Jody said, just sounding resigned at this point. “What do you think the point of acting like this is?”

“Whatever, Jody,” said Dean, sounding more sad than insolent now.

“I have a few more questions,” Michael said. “I was wondering if I could learn a little more about your history here. You have an… admittedly impressive amount of solved cases behind you. But you also are the cause of several civilians and officers being put in danger, including Officer Novak.”

“You’re blaming me for that?”

“Apparently the bad guys are ‘always hitting on you’,” said Michael blandly. Dean grit his teeth and resisted the urge to punch him. “I’ve been informed that Azazel took an interest. Considering your relationship with Novak-“

“It wasn’t like that back then.”

“I see. Your brother was also in danger, during that incident. You also were almost killed on live television because of a reckless plan that never should have been approved,” said Michael. “And there’s a lack of consensus on whether or not you are in fact psychic within the department.”

“Some people are close-minded.”

“You’re also unprofessional and have a large degree of complaints made against you, many of which were made by Officer Novak in your first few months here.”

“These sound a lot less like questions and a lot more like you’re trying to get a reaction out of me,” said Dean. “Cas got over it.”

“You were first arrested under the suspicion that you were working with criminals, and your familiarity with them since isn’t something I’m willing to overlook.”

“So now I’m guilty because I’m too good at being psychic? Make up your damn mind,” said Dean. “Either I’m a fraud who doesn’t know what he’s talking about and makes dumb plans, or I’m a mastermind that tricked everyone into thinking I’m psychic while working with criminals. I can’t be both.”

“I think we’re done here,” Jody said before Michael can go on. “Don’t leave the station Dean. We may need to talk to you again.”

“Fine. I need to make a call,” said Dean, getting up to leave. Jody sighed when the door banged shut behind him. Michael glanced at her.

“You have to know what the result of this investigation is going to be,” he said, like he was commenting on the damn weather. Jody nodded, her chin up and her shoulders squared.

“I wasn’t born yesterday, Mr. Milton,” she said. “But you aren’t going to take this out on my officers. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’m not sure I agree with that. Fortunately for you, my hands are tied for the moment when it comes to their careers. Hopefully that won’t be the case soon.”

*********************

Sam picked up the phone while he waited for the water to heat up in the microwave for the tea he was making. He’d always been more of a coffee, person, but Eileen had told him that Mildred had always made her tea when she was sick one time and he’d wanted to surprise her. She’d had a shitty week, and Sam was getting a taste of just what Dean had been through with Cas when it came to having a significant other that thought being sick or injured was beneath them.

“Hey Dean, how are things going with Milton?” asked Sam. He’d spent his hour being interrogated anxiously waiting to get back to Eileen and hadn’t stuck around to see how it ended up. “He didn’t seem like the most sympathetic guy, but I’m sure he understood about Charlie. It was a fluke, and you guys did lock up a lot of Crowley’s top guys-”

“I might have just lost us any opportunity for future employment at the SBPD,” Dean interrupted. “So it went okay, I guess.”

“Jesus Christ, do you need me to-“

“I’m good. There’s nothing you can do right now, anyway,” said Dean. “How’s Eileen doing?”

“Good. Well, as good as she can be. Bruised ribs, fractured radius, and a stab wound aren’t exactly a picnic, but she won’t complain about any of it,” said Sam. He sighed. “I wish she would complain. It’s making me feel like a wimp.”

Dean snorted.

“Yeah. Remember that time you made me go to the grocery store when you were sick because we didn’t have the right type of soup?”

“I was twelve!”

“You whined at me for like half an hour,” Dean said, still laughing a little about it. “Tell Eileen I said hi. And don’t worry, I’ll sort out everything before you get back. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just focus on your fiancee, okay?”

“Okay. Call if you need something.”

Sam hung up and took the now steaming pitcher of water out of the microwave and poured it into two mugs before grabbing tea bags and placing them in the water. Then he pulled open a drawer with some sugar packets he’d stolen from some diner or other and brought that along with the two cups back to his bed.

Eileen’s eyes lit up when she saw Sam.

Is that for me, she signed at him, pointing towards the tea. He nodded and passed her a cup, which she drank from before setting it down on the side table. Sam sat next to her, mindful of her injuries and Eileen leaned her head on his shoulder for a few moments before repositioning herself so she could easily read his lips.

“You got a call?” she asked. Sam nodded.

“Yeah, Dean said the last case didn’t go very well. He also told me to say hi to you.”

“Tell him I say hi back,” said Eileen. “Does he need help. We could-“

“Whatever you’re about to suggest, the answer is no,” said Sam. “And Dean said he had it sorted.”

“I really am fine, Sam.”

Sam closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

“Just… indulge me okay?” he said. “And a stab wound is not fine.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“You knew this was my job. Sometimes I’m going to come home hurt. You have to get used to it.”

Sam looked at Eileen, who was watching him with wary eyes. She looked like she feared the worst and was already preparing herself for it. For Sam to say that he couldn’t deal with that uncertainty. That he was either going to make Eileen pick or he was going to say that they couldn’t be together anymore.

All of which was stupid and never going to happen.

“I know that this is part of the deal,” said Sam. “But I’m not going to get used to it. I’m going to be worried about you. That’s part of the deal too.”

Eileen stared him down a while before finally nodding that yes, that was the way it was going to be. And Sam felt better now that they were on the same page again. He had a feeling this wasn’t a conversation they were going to stop having, but he was okay with that. Just as long as Eileen was around for them to keep having it.

“So… want to watch a movie?” asked Sam.

“Is this a sleepover? Can I braid your hair?” Eileen asked, one eyebrow raised. It was quite a successful attempt to add levity to the conversation.

“Dean’s already made that joke like twenty times. You aren’t original,” said Sam. Eileen shrugged.

“Dean sent me pictures of you from college. Your hair looked good short.”

“Are you already trying to change me?” Sam asked, hands unconsciously going up to his hair. Eileen laughed and took both of Sam’s hands in the hand of her uninjured arm, pulling them away from his head.

“I like it long, too,” she said. She smiled at him. “I like you.”

“I like you, too,” said Sam. He settled a little more against her, and laced her fingers through his before speaking again, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb over her engagement ring. “What’s the future look like to you? Once we’re married and everything?”

Eileen furrowed her eyebrows thinking, hand trailing slowly up and down Sam’s arm in a way he can’t help but find soothing.

“We work. Together or apart, but we work at jobs we love,” she said. “And I know you love your job with your brother. We get older, maybe we can’t do as much, but we take the extra time to spend with each other. Maybe we take in a pet or two.”

Sam sat up so fast that Eileen nearly fell off the bed.

“Ow,” she said, trying to right herself. Sam caught her and helped make sure she was comfortable again, jabbering excitedly while he was doing so:

“Can we get a dog?”

Eileen frowned at him and pointed to her ears, since she had been busy trying not to tumble to floor when he’d said that. He quickly signed the same request.

“I have bad experiences with dogs,” Eileen admitted, feeling a little unhappy to have put the sad look on Sam’s face at that news. “Cat?”

“Dean’s allergic.”

“Lizard?”

“No.”

“Bunny?”

Sam paused to think about it.

“Bunnies are cute.”

“Bunnies it is,” decided Eileen. “We’ll name it Spot. It’s basically the same thing as a dog.”

Sam rolled his eyes at that, but let it go.

“Spot. We should get Spot a friend so he won’t be lonely,” said Sam thoughtfully. “What should we call Spot’s friend?”

Sam thought for a second before snapping his fingers.

“Bones. Spot and Bones.”

Eileen smiled at his renewed enthusiasm and cuddled closer to Sam, yawning as she grew more and more tired.

“Tomorrow we’ll go and get Spot and Bones,” she murmured sleepily. Sam kissed the top of her head as she drifted off to sleep, and watched her for a while afterwards, unable to believe his incredible luck.

“I love you so much.”

**************************

It wasn’t long before Dean, Charlie, and Castiel were asked to go into Chief Mills office.

Michael looked at them all as coolly as ever, but with an additional layer of smugness that spelled bad news in every possible way. Castiel found himself fearing the worst and remembered Dean’s supposedly prophetic words before they went back inside:

“This is going to be a shitshow.”

Castiel had a sinking feeling he was right. He looked at Dean and then Charlie, and briefly up in case God was in a forgiving mood for once.

“It looks as though we’re all here,” said Michael, quickly getting down to business. “First thing’s first, Jody Mills is no longer going to be the Chief of police-“

“And I wonder who’s going to be taking her place,” muttered Dean loudly. Michael assessed him a moment, almost amused at him now.

“I’ll be taking over until a suitable replacement has been found,” said Michael, completely unashamed.

“Shocker.”

“While I’m in charge, the SBPD is not going to need any psychic assistance. I’d also prefer you and your brother not visit in the future,” Michael continued. “As for Officer Bradbury and Officer Novak…”

Michael paused to look at the both of them, and their grim expressions.

“Your positions are still yours, but I am going to be watching you, is that understood?” said Michael. They both nodded in surprise. “Excellent. I hope you don’t disappoint me. And Novak?”

“Yes?” Castiel said, wondering why he had been singled out. Michael narrowed his eyes at him.

“Please keep in mind there are rules about dating coworkers. It seems to be an issue for you.”

And with that, Michael left. Charlie looked wrecked as it hit her that Jody had just been fired.

“I’m so-“ she said, a sharp breath snagging the rest of her sentence. She took a moment to get control over herself before saying. “I’m so sorry.”

“Charlie,” said Jody gently, obviously trying to soften whatever guilt Charlie was feeling. All that did was cause Charlie to turn around and run out the door.

She stopped just a few steps out of the station, and didn’t have to turn around to know someone had followed her.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay then, we won’t talk about it,” said Dean. “Can you look at me?”

Charlie turned around, and swallowed hard at the sympathetic look on Dean’s face.

“You don’t get it,” she said. “I’m just… I’m just a nerd who likes playing video games and spent half her life doing illegal crap on computers. I’m such an idiot for thinking that I get to have this. Be the hero, get the girl, save the day. That’s why I thought, hey, why not be a cop this time around? When… when I started over, I just wanted-“

Charlie cut herself off and shook her head.

“You wanted things to go right for once?” Dean asked. Charlie nodded. “Hey, I get that. Don’t think I don’t get that. Before this job… I have had my share of reinventing myself and being miserable because of it. But don’t think for a second Charlie that you are just pretending to be a hero. Right when I first met you, you saved my brother after you’d been tortured for hours. That’s pretty damn heroic.”

Charlie sniffed and tried to shrug it off, but Dean kept on.

“So you let a pretty face get the best of your judgment. It happens. You’re still Charlie Bradbury, the most badass cop on the SBPD… and don’t you dare tell Cas I said that.”

Charlie snorted, but managed to work herself back into a bad mood quickly enough.

“Charlie Bradbury’s not real.”

“She looks pretty real to me,” said Dean. “And she’s got a lot of people who love her. You aren’t pretending to be a hero. The situation’s just… a little more complicated than you’re letting on.”

“You’ve got an interesting definition of lying,” Charlie muttered.

“Yeah, well… whatever gets the job done. We help people. You help people. That’s what matters. One mistake doesn’t take that away from you.”

Charlie nods a little, and Dean can tell her eyes are a little shinier than they were a minute ago.

“Hey, c’mere,” Dean said, pulling her in for a hug. Charlie hugged back, taking a bit of comfort in knowing her friend was there for her. Even if her face was kind of smashed at the moment. “God, you’re short.”

“You’re such a dick,” Charlie muttered.

“Yeah, that’s me,” said Dean, patting her head before letting go. Charlie smiled at him, a bit of her usual fire back in her eyes. “What?”

“I love you.”

“I know,” said Dean in his best Han Solo impression, smiling wider at Charlie’s outburst of laughter.

*******************

Jody sighed as she saw Charlie run from the room with Dean chasing after. She looked at Castiel, who was standing statue still, no emotion evident on his face.

“That’s it, Novak,” she said, causing his eyes to snap up to her.

“Chief Mills-“

“Not anymore,” said Jody. Castiel’s sentence stuttered to a stop and he looked down with barely concealed anger.

“You don’t deserve this,” he said. “You have been a steadying hand in the storm, not the cause of it. He can’t fire you. He can’t-“

“Mr. Milton can and has,” said Jody, in her best no nonsense tone. It wasn’t like getting fired didn’t sting, but she’d expected it. Hoped that if she was replaced she could stop those under her from being dismissed as well, a plan which had worked. And she could see that Novak saw that for what it was. “And you aren’t going to do anything about it.”

Castiel seemed to be building himself up to argue with her, and Jody didn’t have time for that. They’d had enough arguments over the past few years since she’d been promoted and he had taken issue with her promotion.

“Novak, I have two preteen girls and a little boy at home,” she said. “Right now, I’m thinking about how much more I’m going to be seeing them before this all sorts itself out. Don’t count me out yet, but until and unless I get my position back, you’re going to keep your head down and do as your told.”

“When don’t I do that?”

“Please don’t make me answer that question. We’ll be here all week,” said Jody. She debated whether or not to share the next bit of information with him, but couldn’t leave without impressing on him how important it was to her that he keep his job. “One of my girls really looks up to you. Her name’s Alex. Do you want to see a picture?”

“What-“

Jody has her phone out and a picture of her three kids sitting on the couch and staring at the camera like they want to kill it, and another one in which they don’t realize the camera is still on and they seem a lot happier. Jody points to the oldest girl, who has dark hair and a guarded smile.

“My husband and I adopted her after fostering for a few years,” said Jody. “It was a messy situation, and she wasn’t very happy with us at first. Almost ran away. Probably would have if it wasn’t for Claire talking her out of it. She used to be very quiet. I always had trouble getting her to talk, but she took an interest when I mentioned you. What you went through after losing your mother, and the person you became. Even how god damn irritating you are. You became a bit of a role model for her.”

“You…” said Cas, seemingly lost for words. “I didn’t realize.”

“It was good for her to hear about someone with a past like hers having what you have. To know that she can still make a life for herself like you did and be satisfied with it,” said Jody. “Mind you, the last thing she wants to be is a cop,” Jody paused a moment, smiling fondly. “Claire’s always trying to talk her into it.”

“You must love them very much,” said Castiel gently. Jody nodded at him.

“Yeah, I do. And if you helped Alex for even a second, I’m grateful,” she said. “One of the only reasons I always gave you a few extra second chances, even when you were kind of an insufferable ass. Speaking of, remind me to send Winchester a thank you card for mellowing you out.”

Cas rolled his eyes, and then his face fell into a sad smile.

“So this is goodbye for now, then,” he said. Jody nodded. “It has been an honor to work for you.”

“And they say miracles don’t happen,” said Jody wryly. “That compliment wasn’t even backhanded.”

Jody let out a breath of surprise when Castiel hugged her.

“Thank you,” he said, letting go quickly and awkwardly. And then. “We really don’t need to tell anyone this conversation happened.”

“Agreed,” said Jody quickly. “Working with you has been tolerable.”

“Yes, passable at best,” said Castiel easily. “I’m sure it will be much the same working for you in the future, Chief Mills.”

“Try not to become more of a pain in the ass while I’m gone,” said Jody. Castiel made an expression that managed to be a cross between insulted and sorrowful, and then left the room.

Jody looked down at her desk and started packing her things.

**********************

When Cas arrived outside, Charlie very insistently told him and Dean that she was fine, and that they didn’t need to stay and wait with her for Jo to pick her up.

“Seriously, I’ll be fine,” she told Cas, who was still trying to fret over her. “Besides, I know for a fact that Dean agreed to meet his dad’s girlfriend tonight and you promised you’d be there to make sure he didn’t drink himself to death.”

“I’d let him off the hook,” Dean said, staring Charlie down and obviously trying to see if she was really alright. “Seriously, if you and Cas and Jo need a girl’s night-“

“I’m fine,” Charlie insisted again. “Go. I mean it.”

So Dean and Cas left, and Charlie checked her phone. Jo would likely arrive within the next ten to fifteen minutes, so that meant she had a little time to collect her thoughts.

“Hey Charlie.”

Or she could have more emotionally draining conversations.

“Hey Donna,” said Charlie, trying not to sound as unenthusiastic as she felt. Donna reached into her pocket and took out a hard candy.

“Want one?” she asked. Charlie shrugged and took it, figuring a little sugar wasn’t going to hurt anything and it was nice of Donna to offer. “I saw that Dean and Cas took off and I just wanted to make sure you were still doing okay.”

“I’m fine.”

“Good,” said Donna. “Cuz that’s the best revenge you can get when you realize someone’s been using you.”

Charlie looked at Donna, surprised that the typically chipper officer sounded so intense.

“I was married for way too long to a real jerkwad. I know what it feels like to have someone yank ya around to get what they want. Make you think you’d do anything if only this one person likes you,” said Donna. “It’s not fun, that’s for sure. But what really trips ‘em up is when you catch on and just stop givin’ them the time of day.”

She patted Charlie on the shoulder, and offered another piece of candy. Charlie took it.

“Thanks,” said Charlie, popping the mint into her mouth, and rolling it around for a while before speaking again. “Your ex-husband sounds like an asswipe.”

“He’s a lot of things,” Donna said with a shrug. “But he doesn’t get to have a say in who I am anymore, and that’s what matters to me. Dorothy messing with you like that? That doesn’t say anything about you. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”

Donna turned to walk back into the station, and Charlie ended up calling after her.

“Hey Donna,” said Charlie. “Thanks. I mean it. You didn’t have to come out and talk to me.”

“It was no trouble,” said Donna. “And if you ever need to talk, you know where to find me.”

“Yeah,” said Charlie. Behind her a car horn sounded and she turned to see Jo gesturing at her to get a move on. “My ride’s here. I should go.”

“Do you have a Sunday shift this week?” Donna asked. Charlie nodded. “See you on Sunday then, Charlie.”

Charlie waved and then went over to where Jo was sitting in the car. Jo looked at her suspiciously.

“You look surprisingly happy for someone who just had a really shitty week.”

“I guess I just realized I have a really great family here,” said Charlie. Jo’s face smoothed out into pure fondness and she shoved Charlie lightly before backing out of the police station.

“Hell yeah, you do,” said Jo. “Especially me, right?”

“Especially you,” said Charlie.

******************

Mary and Mildred sat across from each other at a diner while Mary waited for a call.

“How’s Eileen doing?” Mary said after a while.

“Better. She’s with Sam. I’m sure he’s taking good care of her.”

“He better be,” said Mary with an understanding smile at Mildred’s worry. “Really, Mildred. She’s in good hands.”

“I know,” said Mildred.

They ordered food and had just started eating when Mary’s phone lit up with the name Ketch on the screen. She picked up the phone and nodded to Mildred not to speak.

“What’s happening?”

“Why, hello to you too, Mary. It’s delightful to hear your voice as always.”

“Cut to the chase, Ketch. I don’t have a lot of time,” said Mary.

“Abaddon has made a successful play for power and has agreed to be loyal to yours truly, just as I knew she would,” said Ketch. “Acquiring Azazel’s business assets is coming along, albeit slowly. But with your help and information, I’m sure we can quicken things.”

“I’ll keep up my end of the deal,” Mary muttered into the phone. “And your guy, Milton?”

“Dean will no longer be working for the SBPD and I’ve told Milton that he is not allowed to fire either Bradbury or Novak from their jobs,” said Ketch. “As promised.”

“Give me two weeks and I’ll hand over everything you need,” Mary said, knowing that the relief in her voice wasn’t nearly as faked as it should be. “I’ll call next week to check in.”

“Please do. I look forward to seeing you in the flesh,” said Ketch. “Goodbye for now.”

Mary ended the call and looked across the table at Mildred, unable to hide mild disgust.

“Why do the bad guys always hit on me?” she asked before anything else. Mildred laughed and went back to eating her food.

“So he’s still buying your story?”

“Just because I haven’t worked in the field in a while doesn’t mean I’m not good.”

“I know you’re good, Mary,” said Mildred. “I’m just worried. I know it’s a good cover for you to be protecting personal interests, but what happens if Ketch figures out you’re playing him?”

“He won’t,” said Mary. “I have it all under control.”

Mildred still looked worried, but she finished the meal with Mary speaking only about business and keeping her doubts to herself.

**Author's Note:**

> Some things:
> 
> 1) Sorry to any Dorothy fans for making her a villain. Plot required it.
> 
> 2) This is also low key inspired by "Stuck in the Middle (with You)", for the different perspectives thing.
> 
> 3) Hi.
> 
> 4) Let me know if you liked! Have a nice day :)


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